1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for recording auxiliary data on a recording medium while recording digital video signals and/or audio signals.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When recording and reproducing a video signal and an audio signal, it is necessary to simultaneously record and reproduce auxiliary data for describing characteristics of the recorded/reproduced video and/or audio signal. The auxiliary data includes, for example, information indicative of whether the video signal is of a 50 Hz system or of a 60 Hz system, information indicative of the number of samples of audio signals assigned in a block composed in synchronization with the video signal, and other information that, if once lose, makes it impossible to reproduce the entire signal. As a conventional digital signal recording system, a digital audio tape-recording system (DAT) for recording only audio signals may be listed. In DAT, tracks formed on a magnetic tape are divided into main areas for recording audio signals, and first and second sub areas as regions for recording other information, by means of IBG (inter block gap) which is a buffer region for editing. The auxiliary data is divided and recorded into a main ID which is a block address of main data block for composing the main area, and a sub ID of sub data which is a block address of a sub data block for composing the sub area.
In such a recording method, however, since the error correction code for auxiliary data is set only for the one which is lower in capacity than the error correction code for the audio signal, the error correction capacity can be guaranteed only by recording repeatedly. Further, when the audio signal and the auxiliary data are recorded in different regions, the necessary auxiliary data may be mistakenly lost in the case of editing or the like.
Furthermore, when recording audio signals, auxiliary data may be assigned in the block address, but when a video signal is recorded by employing a similar recording method, since the quantity of information to be recorded is enormous, it is difficult to further increase the recording rate by repeatedly recording into the block address. When recording an audio signal, meanwhile, it is not necessary to consider the output of data in a trick play mode, but when a video signal is recorded by employing a similar recording method, a trick play mode is an indispensable function. The particularly important data in the auxiliary data in a trick play mode must be protected from magnetic tap scratches, error due to long burst, or synchronous block detection error.